Soft Frosted Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Puffy pillows of chocolate amazingness.

Recently, my husband came home from work with some random store-bought baked good and declared, “these are awesome!” Skeptically, I tasted the offending baked item, and immediately disagreed. Also, (only slightly) offended. He asked me to reproduce the recipe. Of course, he had suggestions — not very helpful suggestions, at that. “Make it more chocolate.” “Make it more different.” “Can you make it taste better?” “I don’t like pink.”

You heard the man.

The candidate for this baker’s makeover was a soft, white sugar cookie with fluffy pink icing, decorated with sprinkles. You know the one! It lives, wrapped in plastic, forgotten on a shelf in your local supermarket’s bakery department. My challenge was to convert this usually stale, dry and chemically-laden sugar bomb into a chocolate delight. Done right, these cookies are tender, full of flavour and not overly sweet. The hit of sweetness comes from the rich chocolate frosting (just a little).

Oh yes, and sprinkles. If you like that sort of thing. (I do.)

Click through for the recipe and instructions.

The Canadiana Cookie Project

My Canadiana Cookie Project

Rather than do a cookie set in a Christmas or holiday theme, I decided to do a theme that evoked winter in Canada. What is more Canadian than Hudson's Bay? Well, it may be American-owned now, but the ubiquitous stripes of the point blanket are reflected in the first cookie, styled into a Christmas stocking. The red blanket-stitch around the edge really makes it stand out.

The second cookie is a sweet little white ice skate. I live on the west coast, so outdoor winter ice skating is but a dream for me. But when I was a teen, I lived in Minnesota for a time and remember the outdoor rink at the end of my street with fondness.

I like to think the third cookie is a cute little Noble Fir; little chickadees nestled in its snow-covered, white sparkle sugar branches.

The fourth cookie is a red mitten, with a fur-lined wrist in red sparkle sugar.

Does this wintery set make you think of skating outdoors, your nose & cheeks turning pink, thoughts of a warm fire at home and hot chocolate in your mug?

Sugar cookie recipe here
Royal icing for outlining recipe here
How to thin royal icing for flooding, video here